Free Essay. Role of Price Control in Achieving Affordable Healthcare

The United States of America boasts of having one of the most efficient healthcare systems in the world. However, it is also among the most expensive healthcare systems. The following paper discusses the consequences of obscure medical pricing and possible solutions.

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Medical costs and their effects on society.

According to the Journal of American Medical Association, between 1996 and 2015, American spending on healthcare grew by a trillion dollars (Bui et al., 2017). In 2017, Americans spent an average of eleven thousand dollars per person on health services. In seven years, this cost will grow to seventeen thousand dollars per person. Most of these costs go into buying drugs, paying doctors, nursing facilities, clinical services, and administration.

This paper will focus on the pricing of medical services, out-of-pocket payments, and premiums as the major causes of high healthcare costs. Medical premiums have been on the increase in recent years. The National Conference of State Legislatures states that 2018 saw a medical insurance premium rise of five percent (Papanicolas et al., 2018). High out-of-pocket costs of up to thirteen thousand dollars push up health care costs. By two thousand twenty, these costs will have risen to sixteen thousand three hundred dollars for families and eight thousand dollars for families.

The healthcare system is expensive due to inadequate transparency on the cost of medical services. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, eighty-three percent of medical professionals believe that their organizations have low transparency pricing rates. The West Health Institute states that forty-four percent of Americans forfeit medical visits due to costs (Japsen, 2018).

Price control as a measure of reducing medical costs.

To resolve this problem, this paper posits that medical insurance providers and medical service providers should abide by government prices. The government will also define cost and designate the party to incur each charge. Pricing should be the domain of industry regulatory bodies. However, if the prices lock out sections of American society because of cost, the government will provide a benchmark rate. Service providers will have to price their services above or below that benchmark by a certain percentage.

This essay, in effect, calls for price controls. Capping costs will reduce the cost of medical care. An effective price control will reduce medical costs, especially those that are abnormally high. Price capping has minimal effect on the market, because it does not affect fair prices. Only extremely high valuations will reduce. This price reduction will make healthcare affordable to more Americans.

Role of the legislature in regulating business.

The legislature is the most appropriate path to achieving price control. Councils exercise the citizens' authority to make laws. As representatives of citizens, it is ideal for them to play a leading role in implementation. Congress also has the mandate to establish rules that regulate trade within states. These powers place the legislature in a unique position to effect change in the medical sector.

Price control support

A study by Health Affairs in 2016 concludes that the three largest insurers in 2016 spent 8.8% of their payments on people less than sixty-five years. 3.2% of this spending was on surprise invoices. Of these surprise invoices, 58.2% percent were above the national average costs (Chernew et al., 2019). If these costs were within the average levels, the companies would save two percent more.

An Innovative Application of Operational Research, a study in the European Journal of Operational Research, highlights the use of price controls in the energy sector among developing countries and its success (Murphy, 2019). The research advocates for government to offer price controls while on the other hand offering incentives to producers. This ensures production does not reduce. On the other hand, energy becomes affordable to more citizens.

Pro-price control stakeholders.

Government: Affordable and quality health care is a human rights. Capping prices ensures that the government can offer health services that are accessible to all.

Patients: patients will have the ability to choose the appropriate health service provider because they will have adequate information on the pricing and services they will acquire.

Anti-price control parties.

Service providers: large service providers will resist price control because it targets the overpriced services in society. Price control will also increase competition in the medical sector.

Research and development parties: these parties oppose price controls because; pharmaceuticals will spend less on research. However, government incentives will bridge the vacuum in financing.

To address their fears, emphasis will be on the advantages they will gain from price control. For example, consumers will have more disposable incomes hence enabling them to seek more medical services, and price control will boost creativity in the pharmaceutical sector.

Financial benefits of price control.

Service providers and patients are currently paying millions of dollars annually due to the excessive process and hidden charges. Cost regulations ensure that these excesses are in check. Insurance companies will pay less for the services offered. Patients will receive quality care at affordable prices.

Presenting the proposal and the legislative process.

To ensure that this proposal gets to the legislator, I will schedule an appointment with their office. This approach will allow me to make the presentation and field any questions that may arise. The proposal will go through following the legislative process before becoming law: the representative will take the bill to congress and sponsor it. By sponsoring it, they seek other members' support. The bill then goes to the relevant committee for consideration. After passing the committee stage, the bill goes through a vote, and if it receives a simple majority, it goes to the Senate for further consideration. A senate committee will discuss the proposal before the rest of the house votes. In case of any changes, the bill will go back to the House for the two houses to agree. After achieving consensus, the bill goes to the president for approval. The president has ten days to veto or sign the bill into law.

Relationship between Christian principles and nursing advocacy.

Sixty-five percent of Americas consider themselves Christians (Bjorck et al., 2019). Christian views, therefore, could play an essential role in health advocacy. The New International Version Bible states in Proverbs 31:8-9 that Christians should speak out for those who cannot do the same for themselves. Christianity also helps practitioners define what is right and wrong. For example, Jesus healed a blind man on the Sabbath and was willing to perform miracles for all classes of society. This character shows that medical practitioners should ensure their services are affordable to all members of the community.

Nurses spend a lot of time with patients, hence making them ideal advocates. However, there is a need to educate nurses on the legislative process and critical thinking. This training will enable more nurses to identify challenges in society and provide solutions

References

Bjorck, J. P., Kim, G. S., Cunha, D. A., & Braese, R. W. (2019). Assessing religious support in Christian adolescents: Initial validation of the Multi-Faith Religious Support Scale-Adolescent (MFRSS-A). Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, 11(1), 22-31. https://doi.org/10.1037/rel0000140

Bui, A. L., Dieleman, J. L., Hamavid, H., Birger, M., Chapin, A., Duber, H. C., Horst, C., Reynolds, A., Squires, E., Chung, P. J., & Murray, C. J. (2017). Spending on Children's Personal Health Care in the United States, 1996-2013. JAMA Pediatrics, 171(2), 181. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2016.4086

Chernew, M. E., Pany, M. J., & Frank, R. G. (2019, September 3). Considering health spending. Health Affairs. https://doi.org/10.1377/hblog2019https://www.healthaffairs.org/do/10.1377/hblog20190826.369708/full/0826.369708

Japsen, B. (2018, March 26). Poll: 44% Of Americans Skip Doctor Visits Because Of Cost. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brucejapsen/2018/03/26/poll-44-of-americans-skip-doctor-visits-due-to-cost/#723baa3c6f57

Murphy, F. (2019). Measuring the Effects of Price Controls Using Complementarity Models. European Educational Research Journal, 275(2), 666-676.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0377221718309925

Papanicolas, I., Woskie, L. R., & Jha, A. K. (2018). Health Care Spending in the United States and Other High-Income Countries. JAMA, 319(10), 1024. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2018.1150